Zhang Handan, once in the darkest hours of the Great Qin Empire, was like a dazzling meteor across the sky, illuminating the sky over Xianyang. But sadly, when he was about to succeed, he met Xiang Yu and finally died and the country was destroyed.
In September of the first year of Qin II, Chen Sheng's Wuguang rebel army, led by the general Zhou Wen, attacked Hangu Pass
"Collect the troops to the pass, the car is thousands, the pawns are hundreds of thousands, to the drama, the army." ”
Hangu Pass is the eastern gate of Guanzhong, but also the strategic throat of the Qin State to defend the mainland, during the Warring States period, the Qin army and the six kingdoms of Kwantung fought each other with victories and defeats, but there is a basic bottom line, that is, never lost Hangu Pass.
The armies of the Six Kingdoms have never been able to advance one step into Hangu Pass, so they cannot threaten and ravage the Qin state itself!
Therefore, Chen Sheng's Zhang Chu army attacked Hangu Pass, which was not only a major military defeat for the Qin Empire, but also a huge psychological impact.
On the contrary, after Zhang Chu's army broke through The Hangu Pass, the military's morale was greatly encouraged, and there was almost no danger to defend the Pingchuan River in guanzhong after that. They quickly marched west along the straight road on the south bank of the Weishui River, passing through Ningqin and Zheng County, and attacked the shihuang mausoleum at the foot of Lishan Mountain on the eastern outskirts of Xianyang.
At this time, the main force of the Qin army was far away in Hetao and Lingnan, who would resist Zhang Chujun?
Shake off! Xianyang is in danger!
At this time, the conscription of any army is far from the water can not save the near fire, as the saying goes, the situation creates heroes, the wind knows the grass, just at this moment, the previously unknown Zhang Handan came out of nowhere.
At the time of the rebellion at the end of the Qin Dynasty, there are almost no records, only sporadic accounts of him in the process of eliminating Korea and the Zhao state.
After Qin Shi Huang swept away the Six Kingdoms, he entered the bureaucratic system and was reused, becoming a minister in charge of court affairs and responsible for the construction of the Lishan Cemetery.
In the process of his ascension, Cheng Xiang Li Si obviously played an important role, because the important Lishan Cemetery Project was named by Cheng Xiang Li Si, but it was Zhang Handan who was actually responsible for operation.
As the Tianzi No. 1 project of the Great Qin Empire, Li Si could only be absolutely assured and at ease if he delivered it to his confidants.
Faced with the biggest crisis since the founding of the Great Qin Empire, the chancellor Li Si unsurprisingly recommended his confidant to Qin II: Zhang Handan.
Zhang Handan did not disappoint the Qin state, and he quickly mobilized Lishan's servicemen and prisoners and incorporated them into the Qin army, with the Imperial Lieutenant Army guarding the capital as the core. Immediately, Zhang Handan completed the impossible task: defeating hundreds of thousands of Zhang Chu's army, which was already approaching Xianyang.
According to historical records,
1. In September of the first year of Qin II, Zhou Wen led his army to break through Hangu Pass and arrived at Xishui, where he fought a major battle with the Qin army and was defeated;
2. In November, at Caoyang (Lingbaodong, Henan), he fought against the Qin army and was defeated;
3. After more than ten days, he retreated to the vicinity of Shichi, fought against the Qin army, was defeated, and committed suicide.
After killing Zhou Wen, Zhang Handan's army was like a god, and within ten days, it hit from Shichi to Xingyang (about 150 kilometers in a straight line), from Xingyang to Xu County (about 110 kilometers in a straight line), and from Xu County to Chen County, the capital of Zhang Chu state (about 80 kilometers in a straight line).
Tian Zang, Li Gui, Wu Feng, Fang Jun, and Zhang He were killed, and Chen Sheng and Wu Guang were killed.
Zhang Chuguo was easily kicked in front of Zhang Handan like a paper house.
Zhang Handan then broke the strongest Qi and Chu armies in the princes' army, killing the King of Qi, Zhou Shi, and Wei Gui.
I can only think of one word to describe those who were killed one by one: the earth chicken tile dog.
After successive victories, Zhang Handan's army suffered its first defeat and was defeated by the Chu commander Xiang Liang at Dong'a and Puyang.
However, Xiang Liang was entangled with five of the ten famous generals of the Qin and Han dynasties: Cao Shan, Zhou Bo, Dou Bao, Fan Duo, and Xiang Yu, who together defeated Zhang Handan, and li You (Li Si's son) was also beheaded by Cao Shan.
The proud army was bound to be defeated, and soon after, Zhang Handan once again took out his night attack must kill skill, and cut Xiang Liang under the horse in Dingtao, achieving the peak of his life's prestige.
After that, Zhang Handan left a small number of troops on the south bank of the Yellow River to prevent the Chu army from advancing westward, and the main force crossed the Yellow River north in September after Qin II's second year and attacked Zhao Di. After that, the two main armies of the Qin state met to break the combined forces of the Zhao state and the state of Qi, and took advantage of the victory to capture the old capital of the Zhao state, Handan City.
In order to prevent the Zhao people from revolting again, Zhang Handan ordered the destruction of the handan city walls and forcibly relocated the residents to Hanoi County.
Soon, Zhang Handan and Wang Li carried out a division of tasks: Wang Li pursued the Zhao Qi army into Julu County and surrounded it inside the city; Zhang Handan's army stayed in Hanoi and Handan County to cover the grain routes and ensure that the grain from Ao Cang was continuously transported to the front line of Julu.
Zhang Handan's intention was: to encircle the point to provide reinforcements, if the reinforcements of the Six Kingdoms came, they would be annihilated, and if they did not come, they would be easily conquered when the grain in the city was exhausted.
But it can only be said that Zhang Handan guessed the beginning correctly, not the ending: he lost.
After Xiang Yu crossed the Zhangshui River in a broken cauldron, he miraculously defeated Wang Li's 300,000 northern army and forced Zhang Handan's 200,000 Qin army to surrender.
Why did Zhang Handan lose to Xiang Yu?
In fact, Zhang Handan did not lose to Xiang Yu on the battlefield, so you can put it another way:
Why did Zhang Handan surrender to Xiang Yu?
This is a big mystery, Sima Qian's language is unknown, in the Qin Shi Huang Benji and Xiang Yu Benji are said to be Emperor II fainting, the chancellor Zhao Gao dictatorship, forcing the last loyal minister to add military god Zhang Handan.
However, at the end of the Qin Shi Huang Benji, in the taishi gong commentary, he said yes
"Qin envoy Zhang Handan marched east, and Zhang Handan wanted the city to go out with the crowd of the three armies in order to seek it"
Here, Zhang Handan became a traitor who was proud of his achievements and blackmailed the emperor.
Such inconsistencies, written in black and white in the "History", you can read it yourself.
Why is there such a contradiction?
Because why Zhang Handan surrendered, Sima Qian did not know why.
We know that Wang Li was the grandson of the Chu general Wang Qi and the commander of the Northern Army after Meng Tian was killed. According to records, in the twenty-eighth year of Qin Shi Huang, Wang Li was the Marquis of Wucheng, and the Marquis was the highest rank of the Twenty Lords, Gold and Silver, Purple Silk, and Shangqing. And Zhang Handan's name has not yet appeared in the historical record. After that, it was not until the second year of Qin II that it first appeared, and the official position was Shaofu, one of the Nine Qings, silver seal, and green silk. It can be seen that the grade is far lower than that of Wang Li.
The Northern Army was one of the three main forces of the Qin Army, originally led by the famous general Meng Tian to fight against the Xiongnu along the Great Wall in the north, with a total of 300,000 people. After the uprising of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, the central government of the Qin Dynasty, except for some of the remaining troops, all other main forces were urgently transferred back to the interior to extinguish the Six Kingdoms uprising.
The collapse of the main force of the Northern Army, whether it was for the Qin Dynasty or Zhang Handan, was a very heavy blow.
Why did the Legion of the North, which could fight a good war, perish? What is the Zhang Handan army doing at hand? Why not go to the rescue?
According to the Xiang Yu Benji, Xiang Yu first defeated Wang Li and then defeated Zhang Handan. However, in the Biography of Chen Yu Zhang'erlie:
Xiang Yu attacked Zhang Handan's army first, and after Zhang Handan retreated, Wang Li's army under Handan City became a lone army, and thus was besieged by the princes, and finally the entire army was destroyed.
The Qin general Wang Li surrounded Julu, and to his south was the 200,000 troops of the Qin general Zhang Handan, and further south was Zhangshui, and further south was Xiang Yu. If Xiang Yu wanted to encircle Wang Li, he first had to cross the Zhangshui River to the north, and then he had to cross the defense of Zhang Handan's 200,000-strong army. According to military common sense, Xiang Yu's combat steps should be based on the "Biography of Zhang Er Chen YuLie", because only by defeating Zhang Handan on the periphery can he besiege Wang Li.
The "Art of War of Sun Tzu" says, "Ten sieges", Xiang Yu's entire army crossing the Zhanghe River is only about 60,000 people, and Xiang Yu is only tens of thousands of people on the south bank of the Zhangshui River, how can he surround Wang Li for two months and eliminate him? What's more, a few kilometers south of Wang Li, there was Zhang Handan's 200,000-strong army.
If Xiang Yu was really stupid enough to spread out his forces to surround Wang Li, the result would inevitably be divided and destroyed by the two large armies of Zhang Handan and Wang Li. But in reality:
Zhang Handan never left The City of Thorns, and did not go all out to hold the north bank of the Zhanghe River. Otherwise, Xiang Yu would be able to easily cross the Zhanghe River no matter how many kettles were broken and no matter how many boats were sunk.
That is to say, in the northern part of the elite army of the Qin Kingdom, The King of the Army was surrounded until the final defeat, and Zhang Handan was watching in a very strange way!
According to the "Chronicle of the Moon of Qin and Chu": In September of the second year of Qin II, Wang left the army to besiege King Zhao and Julu. In October, Under the guidance of Li Liang, Zhang Handan entered Handan north. In November, Xiang Yu crossed the river to fight, but Wang Li surrendered two months later in the third year of Qin II.
From the time Wang Left besieging the giant deer to the time of defeat, there was a period of five months.
Why did Zhang Handan go from being able to fight a good war and blocking people from killing people to sitting back and watching friendly troops being destroyed?
Restoring history, we will find that during this period, a very great change occurred in the court of the Qin State in Xianyang:
When Zhang Handan led his army north to julu to surround the Qi and Zhao alliance forces, the relieved Qin monarchs and courtiers began to pursue responsibility:
"The Kwantung bandits rose up together, and Qin Sent troops attacked, killing many people, but they did not stop. There are many thieves, all of whom are suffering from doing things, and the taxes are also large. Please stop the author of Afang Palace, reduce the province of the four sides of the rotation. ”
In order to maintain his authority, Qin II, instigated by Zhao Gao, said:
During the second year of the reign of the Emperor, a group of thieves rose up at the same time, and the king could not forbid it, and he wanted to stop what the Former Emperor had done, and he did not repay the Former Emperor, and the second did not do his best to be loyal to the Emperor, so why was he on the throne? "Go down to the sick, the robber, and blame him for his crime." Go to the disease, rob the day: "There will be no disgrace." ”
He ordered that the Right Minister, The Left Minister Li Si, and the General Feng Hao be punished and imprisoned.
In the end, the right chancellor went to the disease, the general Feng Robb committed suicide, Li Si was imprisoned, beheaded on the outskirts of Xianyang, and the clan was exterminated.
Li Si was killed in July in the second year of Qin II, and the news reached Julu, and Zhang Handan, who was Li Si's confidant, was dumbfounded.
Worried about his fate, he sent Sima Xin to Xianyang for activities. However, Zhao Gao refused to receive Sima Xin.
At the same time as zhang handan's first rat, Wang Li's army was destroyed, and the Zhao generals Sima Wei and Shen Yang had successively conquered Hanoi and Henan County, cutting off Zhang Handan's retreat route, Zhang Handan could no longer retreat to Guanzhong, and the coalition army formed a strategic encirclement of Zhang Handan.
Therefore, Zhang Handan finally chose to betray his motherland under the condition that his strength occupied a clear advantage.
You must know that before Xiang Yu agreed to accept Zhang Handan's surrender, he once summoned the officers to unify their thinking: "There is not much food and grass in the troops, and I want to promise them to make a contract." ”
Otherwise, Zhang Handan was the culprit in the murder of Xiang Yu's uncle Xiang Liang, and with Xiang Yu's character, if it were not for the lack of food and grass in the troops, if it were not for the fact that the combat effectiveness of Zhang Handan's army was too strong to fundamentally defeat Zhang Handan, how could Xiang Yu easily agree to Zhang Handan's surrender?
Despite this, Xiang Yu and his subordinates were filled with hatred and hostility towards Zhang Handan's 200,000 followers. Soon after, they were all killed in the south of Shin'an Castle.
These 200,000 disciples were not the previous Lishan prisoners, but the Guanzhong pawns and the newly recruited Qin people.
In a word, they are all the sons and daughters of Guanzhong's father and elder.
Zhang Handan sold them too badly.
Therefore, although Zhang Handan was crowned a king, a few years later, when Liu Bang led his army from Chen Cang into Guanzhong, Zhang Handan, who had rebelled against him and was greatly discouraged, could no longer do anything.
Because his life was over from the day he surrendered.